Let’s Talk about Yoga Selfies!

Yoga Selfies.

What does that bring up in your mind?

For me, until recently it brought forth a vision of the typical yoga selfie I had been getting used to seeing. A woman who’s body fit completely into the so called acceptable realm of the ‘fit body type’ that we’d classically see in a Yoga Magazine. Tanned, muscular and of course, doing some sort of back bend or yoga pose that I’ve never ever been asked to do in a yoga class.

On a rock or cliff or somewhere in Bali. Know what I mean?

Yoga selfies felt completely inaccessible. Plus, as someone who takes and explores the technicality and creativity of taking selfies on a daily basis…I suspected that many of them weren’t actually selfies. Sure, they were of themselves, the person posting it…but that’s not what a selfie is.  Perhaps some of them were actually taken by the person setting up the camera, timer in their hand as they got into their yoga pose and then initiated the timer or used a timer app. But, I doubted it. They looked to me by the angle they were shot at (as in, someone’s eye level) that they were taken by someone else.

That, does not a yoga selfie make.

An awesome yoga photo, yes, but not a selfie.

And how are we supposed to compare ourselves to that? Especially since even in tree I still keep my leg below my knee as my balance ebbs and flows and I’ve never done a backbend.

I said that this is how I used to see yoga selfies as, didn’t I.

Thankfully, something changed. Maybe for you too.

More and more we’re seeing folks share their yoga selfies as they do their home practice and the diversity of what is a ‘yoga selfie’ is changing quickly.

Hashtags like #yogaselfie or #curvyyoga more and more have a diversity of types of folks sharing their yoga practice and that has made all the difference.

So I wanted to share a few reasons why you might want to try taking Yoga Selfies as a part of your self-love and body awareness practice.

The world needs to see YOUR kind of Yoga Body

Have you seen the awesome campaign lately ‘This is What a Yogi Looks Like’ by the Yoga & Body Image Coalition?

There are so many incredible people out there trying to change the perception that I mentioned earlier of ‘What a Yogi Looks Like’ and largely, what we’re still seeing in the media around yoga. Things are changing.

And taking your own yoga selfie of your practice can be a part of that movement. The world needs to see YOUR kind of yoga body.

And in case you need to see other folks rockin’ their awesome selves to get inspired here are a few of my favourite places to go to see inspiring yoga selfies or photos:

• Anna’s Curvy Yoga Gallery
• @mynameisjessamyn and her Instagram Feed and this article about her!
• This Buzz Feed about Instagrammers who Prove Yoga Bodies come in all Shapes and Sizes

Let’s Make Yoga Selfies more Beginner-Accessible, by showing our Poses!

What I’m loving seeing these days even when I check the hashtag #yogaselfie is that folks are sharing a more diverse range of poses. Sure there are still a lot of poses that I’ve never been asked to do in a yoga class (ever) and seem really advanced to me, but they are being balanced out slowly but surely with yoga selfies that are the poses people are doing in their daily practice.

I think it’s actually really wonderful to share a photo of a pose you’ve done and worked hard to achieve but let’s share our more accessible poses too. I’m truly no expert in the Yoga department (that’s why I collaborate with Anna) but her style of accessible yoga has helped me feel more safe to say something like this as any pose that we are proud of trying or doing is of value just like all of our bodies are inherently worthy, of value and are indeed Yoga Bodies!

So whether it’s the tips of your toes in Savasana or a full body pose, or with your mobility device or how you adapt yoga to work for your body…whatever way you feel drawn to share your yoga in an image, bring it on!

Rock the Props

One of the things I love most about Anna Guest-Jelley and Curvy Yoga has been learning how to support myself in yoga with props. In the classes I’ve taken with her at retreats there have been points where I’ve found myself brought to tears realizing that those poses I thought I couldn’t do, I could do if I reframed it and let myself use props.

Yoga is not a competition (and well, neither are selfies). They are both tools that allow us to connect with ourselves.

Plus, props make for really great tools for taking selfies too. Blocks are awesome for propping your phone up on to take that selfie!

You get to define how you see Yourself and you can choose Kindness

One of the core messages I want to put out to the world is that you get to define how you want to see yourself and that the camera can be a tool to make that happen.

Not only that but yoga can be such a powerful tool to connect to our bodies and heal how we see ourselves. Of course the actual experience of that has nothing to do with selfies but in my own journey to heal my body image I have found that one piece of the puzzle is to really feel at home in our bodies and yoga is that piece of the puzzle for so many people. For me it has been Nia Dance too.

But often even once we’ve done that we have those old stories of how we may look or how people are perceiving us that can still feel like a remaining piece of the puzzle in our self-love path. That’s where I hope Be Your Own Beloved and this site is of service to people. The places where we can overlap these 2 tools of yoga and selfies as our self-love tools is why Anna & I decided to bring back the class for you.

How to Take Your Yoga Selfie:

Now, I’m not going to give away all the tips I’m sharing in the Practice: Embodying Your Curvy & Beloved Body class with Anna of Curvy Yoga but I did want to share a few things to ponder:

• Where to prop your camera. You might think you need a tripod but it’s not always vital. If you’re taking them at home, what about using a chair with a couple books on it to prop your camera against? Or put your camera on the ground? Or on a desk? Head over to your yoga mat right now, stand on it and look around for a spot either on the ground or above ground where you could prop it.
• Next you’ll need to ponder how to capture it. Most cameras have a timer, as do Android Phones. iPhones have a timer in the most recent system update but it only takes one photo at a time. With any of these options we’ll likely want to use the tool that will allow us to take a whole bunch of photos at once so we don’t have to go back and forth between the mat and the camera.
• If you plan to take yoga selfies regularly, a remote like the HISY remote can be helpful (and fun). That way you can set up your camera or phone and every so often as you are in your yoga pose press the remote and take a photo!
• Take LOTS of photos. This is one of my biggest tips with any selfies. Take far more photos than your comfortable taking. I mean it. Cause thats how we get the ones we really love (and if the thought of taking a LOT of photos makes you uncomfortable check out this recent post where I talked about giving ourselves permission to take as many as we need).
• Ponder Light! As we are potentially moving in our yoga photos, just like with jumping or dancing selfies we’ll be capturing ourselves in motion. Taking these photos in a low lit room will be a lot harder to get a photo we can see with love than taking one in the daytime with lots of light or even outside. One of the things I talk about in Be Your Own Beloved is that often we blame ourselves and our bodies for a ‘bad’ photo when really its that the light isn’t that great which is something we can change. Just keep that in might if you’re not getting photos you like at first. Try somewhere else or add as much light as you can!
• Get help. Yes, I mentioned early that a lot of yoga selfies I used to see looked more like a photo shoot that they were calling a selfie. It’s 100% cool to get someone to take photos of you, why not! But still…not a selfie. And as we explore in my classes, something powerful happens when WE become the photographer too, when we get to define how we see ourselves. But I wanted to mention the idea of getting support as it’s what I did to feel more comfortable taking yoga selfies. My mom is a yoga instructor so I asked her to come along with me to the beach and take some photos. I set up the camera and pressed the timer and then she supported me in the yoga part of it letting me know what I could do to get more into the pose and suggested some poses to try. While your Mom might not be a yoga instructor, what about asking a friend who you trust (who you wouldn’t feel like they were telling you what to do, but rather support you in your practice) and give one another support as you take photos. Take turns being the support & being the selfie taker!
• Use a mirror! Having a mirror nearby whether you take your selfie in it or use it to look at yourself (with kindness) as you get into your pose you may be able to notice where you’d like to adjust your yoga pose as you get ready to take the photo!

Of course, I’ll be sharing a lot more in the Practice class and will be available for participants to answer questions they may have.

Though Practice isn’t  a ‘How to Take Yoga Selfies’ Class. It’s so much more than that. It is an invitation to use both of these tools as companions on your self-love path.

I hope you’ll come join Anna & I for the Curvy Beloved E-Course. Yup, 4 weeks of activities. We have a pose we focus on per week all of which are very accessible and beginner friendly (and even if you’re not a beginner at yoga, exploring these poses as a self-love tool can be mighty powerful). Within these weeks you’ll get an email Monday through Friday from Anna & I with things to explore each day like selfie activities, meditations and more.

To get a sense of what the experience might be like, check out this wonderful post from Krissie Bentley about her experience in the class.

Plus, you get both Anna & I available to answer your class questions! 2 teacher and 4 weeks of exploring connecting to your Curvy Beloved self sounds like an epic deal to me.

Those of you who are a part of Anna’s Curvy Monthly program are invited to take the class as part of that program and you can find more about that option here!